The sustainable mobility association Gasnam held an online conference to present the Basque Hydrogen Corridor, a pioneering initiative, born from the hand of Petronor and Repsol, to advance the decarbonization of transport, among other sectors.
The projects integrated in this initiative involve an investment of 1,300 million euros until 2026, generating more than 1,340 direct jobs and 6,700 indirect jobs, which will result in the production of 20,000 tons of renewable hydrogen per year and in a reduction of 1.5 million tons of CO2 during this period.
The guests at this presentation were welcomed by Gasnam’s general secretary, Eugenia Sillero; the president of the Basque Hydrogen Corridor Association, José Ignacio Zudaire, and its vice-president, Íñigo Ansola.
During her speech, Eugenia Sillero stated that “green hydrogen is synonymous with energy security, sustainability and economic development” and stressed the importance of this energy vector to decarbonize heavy transport that is difficult to electrify.
On the other hand, Jose Ignacio Zudaire added to the words of Gasnam’s general secretary and insisted that the Basque Hydrogen Corridor will also be a great asset for the area: “We must turn the great challenge of energy transition into an opportunity for the economic revival of the territory and contribute to technological and industrial development”.
Íñigo Ansola, general manager of the Basque Energy Agency, considered that we are facing “a key and strategic project, where public-private collaboration will be the backbone. It will serve to create a value chain, a new ecosystem that will generate jobs and will be fundamental in the objective of decarbonization”.
What is the Basque Hydrogen Corridor?
As head of hydrogen projects at Petronor Innovación, Arturo Fernández was in charge of explaining what the Basque Hydrogen Corridor consists of and what the main objectives and challenges are. “The Basque Hydrogen Corridor project consists of the creation of a hydrogen ecosystem in the Basque Country to develop projects and advance in the decarbonization of the economy by improving the competitiveness of the Basque industry”, summarized Fernandez, after adding that the Corridor was officially constituted in October 2021 and that 78 companies are currently involved in it, expecting alliances with other industrial ecosystems, sharing similar European experiences, enabling transport corridors and placing value on hydrogen as a renewable resource.
Corridor projects
Next, several of the Basque Energy Corridor projects that are more closely related to Gasnam’s activity were presented.
Juan Manuel Fernandez, energy efficiency technician of the Basque Energy Agency, presented the green hydrogen production project to be located at the Petronor refinery in Muskiz (Bizkaia) thanks to a 2.5 MW capacity electrolyzer. Fernandez said that, less than a kilometer from the refinery, the Abanto technology park is being built, closely linked to H2 and its technologies, where there will be a logistics center for conditioning and storage, as well as a hydrogen plant that will dispense at 350 bar and 700 bar. This center will also supply, in a second phase carried out in collaboration with Petronor, three other hydrogenerators which will be located next to the Basque capitals.
First hydrogen product in Spain
The hydrogen will be transported from the refinery to the hydrogen plant by a hydroduct built by Nortegas, which will be approximately 900 meters long. Izaskun Gorostiaga, Chief Commercial Officer of Nortegas, also referred to this hydroduct and said that the “hydrogen start-up” is scheduled for the end of 2022. Gorostiaga also presented the conclusions of the H2area study on the behavior of hydrogen in distribution networks that her company is carrying out.
Hidrovan in the port of Bilbao
Ibai Uria, head of the Health, Safety and Environment Department of the Port Authority of Bilbao, spoke about the Hidrovan Project for the energy transition in the Port of Bilbao. “Hidrovan is a project that consists of the adaptation or construction of a mobile device, which can supply electricity to ships in a versatile way, an electricity that would be generated by hydrogen on board the device” said Uria.
Hydrogen train prototype
Alfredo González, head of Corporate Venturing at Talgo, explained the key aspects of the H2 traction project for railroads, as well as the development of the Corridor, with its challenges and opportunities for collaboration. “Railroads start from a privileged position in decarbonization because they represent only 0.24% of all transport emissions, but we are not satisfied. Hydrogen trains are the best alternative to diesel technology on catenary-free tracks to reduce emissions. And we are currently working on a prototype that can run on both electrified and non-electrified tracks. The train will be tested next summer and then we will move on to a second phase to gauge the competitiveness requirements.”
Long-distance H2 coaches
For his part, Iñaki García Sanz, head of the Integral Vehicle Area of the company Irízar, explained the current status of the project they are carrying out to develop a long-distance hydrogen coach solution. A zero-emission solution for passenger transport by road, with performance similar to diesel vehicles.
“The objective is to provide a zero-emission solution for long-distance passenger road transport with attributes and performance similar to diesel vehicles. We have targeted a range of 500 kilometers and a refueling time of about 10 minutes with two different prototypes. But we still have to face some challenges and validate the technology for future series production,” said Iñaki García Sanz.
